1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mauls and, more specifically, to a maul with a maul head having an annular chamber with a portion of its volume filled with shot.
2. Description of Related Art
Hammers and mauls have conventionally been used for striking objects to drive them. Hammers are conventionally used in conjunction with punches to, among other applications, cut various suitable materials to form gaskets. A particular problem with conventional hammers and mauls is that they tend to roll and become useable when striking the top of a small surface such as the strike surface of a punch apparatus. The problem is more acute when the line of force of the hammer or maul head is not perfectly aligned with the center of the strike surface.
Such mauls and hammers are subject to moments about the axis of the head and/or handle which reduces the stability of the head thus requiring more hand and arm strength to be exerted to hold the hammer. The need for additional hand and arm strength prevents the user from using more power thus causing more hits to be required in order to drive the punch through the material. Mauls and hammers typically impact the top of punches off their centers which causes the punch to tilt sideways thus producing an uneven hit and causing the user to refrain from using maximum power because he may hit himself. Such a problem is encountered when using a hammer or maul on a punch to form gaskets from material.
Hammers generally have an annular or cylindrical heads with a centerline axis that is perpendicular to a centerline axis of a handle whereas mauls generally have an annular or cylindrical heads with a centerline axis that is collinear with a centerline axis of a handle. Hammer heads have been developed to prevent rebound such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,604,914. A hammer head having a hollow chamber partially filled with a quantity of flowable inertia material such as shot to give the head its dead-blow characteristics. Whereas these hammers have uninterrupted cylindrical chambers directly behind flat circular strike surfaces prior art mauls do not. Mauls have no flat strike surface and no hollow chambers. Cylindrical hammer heads have center axes that are generally at right angles to their handles while maul head's center axes are generally collinear with and disposed about a central shaft used for the handle. Furthermore, the forces associated with a maul tend to cause the outer strike surface to go flat and collapse the head thereby giving good reason not to have hollow maul heads.
Maul heads are generally cylindrical in shape having a solid body such as in U.S. Pat. No. 912,784 which uses disks held between washers to form a solid maul head. Solid maul heads are often made as assemblies such as the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,723,477 and 3,088,506. Because of the way mauls are used the heads are typically generally symmetrical about a center axis which causes mauls to roll away from the user and even off a bench, particularly on ones that are not very level.
Therefore, there exists a great need for a maul design to reduce a maul's tendency to roll and become useable when striking a top of a small surface such as a strike surface of a punch. There further exists a need to reduce and/or eliminate moments about the axis of a maul head and/or handle which reduces the stability of the head which would then require less hand and arm strength to be exerted to hold the maul and prevent it from causing the punch to tilt sideways during the hitting process. There also exists a need for a maul which allows a user to use more power than during the hitting process than is presently used with conventional mauls and hammers. There is also a need for a maul which when used with punch will make the user less apprehensive and more comfortable exerting greater power thus allowing the user to safely maximize the amount power he uses to drive the punch through the material. There exists a need for a maul to avoid such a problems when using a maul on a punch to form gaskets from material so as to allow the user to work faster and safer by reducing and/or preventing this sideways tiling of the punch when on material to form a gasket.